Young children have a generally short attention span. For this reason, children generally become fidgety and restless when made to sit in one place for extended periods of time. As a result, family trips to restaurants and other similar establishments can be difficult.
Usually, restaurants catering to families strive to provide some sort of amusement or distraction for the children. One such distractions is often embodied in the placemats used for adorning and protecting restaurant tables. As one example, restaurants may have disposable paper placemats that embody various types of games, puzzles, or riddles to keep children occupied before, during, and after meals. Children typically use pencils or other markers to write directly on the placemats to play these games, or solve the puzzles or riddles.
A further advance on this art is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,888, issued on Apr. 19, 1988, to the co-inventors of the present invention. The invention described in the '888 patent is a reusable serving mat which includes a pair of superimposed sheets, typically made of plastic, and sealed to each other to define a chamber containing a free flowing liquid medium. A plurality of discrete articles or game pieces suspended in this liquid medium are movable by manipulation of the liquid medium within the chamber.